Daily Life of a Fairy Maid
by Aaron Jitsukawa
Summary: Cleaning the Scarlet Devil Mansion day in and day out can get insanely boring. That's exactly how Carol thinks, but little does she know that her entire world's about to change. From a plain maid to a magician's apprentice, she learns to see and control magic and she becomes stronger than all the other fairies. But was it all for nothing?
1. A Change of Pace

****Chapter 1: A Change of Pace****

_The world's a funny __place._

_And no, I am not talking about the ha-ha funny, I'm talking about the strange kind of funny. The kind where you would stare at an empty spot on a table and say 'That's funny, I thought left it here.' Of course, it wouldn't be strange at all because you probably misplaced it or someone else took it, but the world's different. There are millions of things in this world that can't be explained by normal means and yet we don't question it, why is that? Why is it that fairies can't get stronger, no matter how they try? Why is it that we fairies are born into this world just to serve as cannon fodder for the other, stronger beings? It makes no sense. Sure, having a carefree life is fine and all, but it gets tiring after a while. Get shot at, die, revive in the morning, play a little, get shot again, die again, revive the next day. And the cycle repeats itself over and over._

_That's why I immediately accepted the offer to become a maid at some mansion that one day simply appeared near the lake that I lived on the shore of. It seemed that the ones that lived in the mansion were strong enough to extend our lifespans past their usual length. They fed us, gave us maid outfits, and assigned us roles to clean the mansion. They even gave us names. None of us had names before, only the stronger fairies and the sprites got names. It was strange, living our lives as just another group of background characters then suddenly someone fed us, clothed us, and gave each of us a unique name. It made us feel important to an extent, but we were pretty much only around to give the mansion a lively feel._

_I, along with a few hundred other fairies, lived as a lower ranking maid in the Scarlet Devil Mansion from that point on. I was part of Group 2B, one of the groups assigned to the second floor of the west wing. Today, my role was that of a window cleaner. Truthfully, I never liked cleaning so I let my body go on autopilot whenever I start my duties. I would get the job done, but I would tend not to pay much attention to anything, which works fine since the group leader usually doesn't bother me during work unless I'm doing something wrong. Then again, maybe it's just because I tune her out. I wonder if she actually talks to me a lot while I'm working and I just respond on autopilot as well. If she does and I've been ignoring her this entire time, I'd feel bad._

"Carol!" The leader's voice cut right through my daydreaming and called my wandering mind back to my body.

I quickly snapped to attention upon hearing my name and immediately apologized to the group leader. "Sorry!"

"Sorry for what?" She gave me a strange look then shook her head as if to dismiss the thought. "Someone from the library group came down with an illness and couldn't work today so we're sending you as relief."

"The library?" I honestly had no idea that this mansion had a library. Generally, we fairies never wandered out of our sections and if we did, we'd get lost in such a huge mansion.

"Yes, the library. Now go quickly, I hear they're having a busy day today." She said while pushing me down the hallway.

"Wait, but where's the library?" I tried to resist her, but she was stronger than me.

"Just go to the east wing, someone will probably help you there. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting, would you?"

* * *

I tried to find the library and ended up getting lost. I asked one of the other maids, but all I got was a poorly-drawn map of the mansion. The map was no help at all so I wandered until I found myself in an empty corridor.

"Shouldn't you be working?" A low voice from behind me pierced the silence of the hall.

I spun around to see a silver-haired girl in a blue maid's uniform standing a few feet away from me. How did I not notice her sneak up on me?

"I-uh, I'm supposed to go to the library as relief for a sick maid, but it seems that I got lost."

She gave a slight nod. "I see. Very well, I shall lead you to the library. Follow me."

I followed her down various empty halls in silence, her heels clicking against the ground was the only sound that resounded throughout the endless corridors. She stopped in front of a set of large wooden doors.

"Beyond this door lies the library. To see what you must assist with, you should look for the librarian, Patchouli Knowledge. Now, if you would excuse me."

"Oh, thank you. Miss- Huh?" I was distracted by the intricate design carved into the doors and when I turned to thank her, I was met by an empty hallway. She even disappeared without a sound. I decided not to dwell on the topic for too long and pushed open the doors.

Almost as soon as I stepped through the doors, I suddenly felt some mysterious force attempting to crush my body. It was as if the air itself had become some kind of heavier material. I could barely take a few steps before I had to lean against a wall to rest.

"This library is saturated with a large amount of magic, it's only natural to be disorientated when suddenly exposed to it." Came a voice from above. Her long red hair flowed behind her as she glided down with her bat wings.

I slowly straightened myself to a somewhat neutral posture, with some difficulty.

"Are you well enough to walk?" I nodded. "Good, then follow me. Miss Patchouli would like to perform an experiment before you start."

She led me around the outer wall of the library to a door that led outside. On the porch was a chunk of wood carved into a vaguely fairy-like shape.

"For this experiment, we'll need you to fire danmaku at this dummy. We're going for single powerful shots, try your best." She produced a small notepad and pen from her pocket and looked at me expectantly.

I didn't get it at all, but I might as well just do as I'm told. I held my arms out in front of me with my palms forward and concentrated.

* * *

"N2, not bad."

I had no idea what it meant, but from the nonexistent damage I did to the dummy, I can only assume that it is bad. Frowning, I followed her back into the library. I completely forgot about the magic contained in the library and fell to the ground as I entered.

"Oh, I forgot about that. The magic only gets stronger toward the center of the library, how about I carry you the rest of the way?"

I didn't think I would be able to move if the magic got any stronger so I swallowed my pride and nodded. To my dismay, she scooped me up as one would carry a princess.

"You're a fairy so you absorb magic at a faster rate than anything else. Your body should adjust to it the longer you're exposed, don't worry." I couldn't help but admire the sheer amount of books that lined the towering shelves that built the labyrinth of a library. "Ah, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I am Koakuma, Miss Patchouli's assistant."

"My name's Carol. I came from Group 2B."

"Carol? That's a nice name. I expect we'll work well together. Oh, and don't worry about this experiment, we aren't planning to do anything to you like the other one."

Other one? I had a feeling that I didn't want to know what that entailed so I kept quiet.

"We're here." At the center of the library was a single desk with piles of books stacked on and by it. An oversized chair seated someone who I couldn't see clearly. "Miss Patchouli, we've arrived."

The person who I could only assume was Patchouli silently stood from her chair and hovered toward us, her long violet hair flowing behind. She was… the opposite of what I expected her to look like. She wore what appeared to be a lavender nightgown and appeared to be at least a head shorter than Koakuma.

"I'll assume that you cannot stand currently, so I'll hold off with the magical analysis until tomorrow." Patchouli lightly coughed. "Nevertheless, welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. I am Patchouli Knowledge, a magician and the librarian."

"I'm Carol. It's a pleasure, Miss Patchouli." I attempted to introduce myself with grace, but the way Koakuma was carrying me didn't help at all.

"Would you mind taking her to the maids' quarters, Koakuma?"

"As you wish, Miss Patchouli." Koakuma bowed slightly as Patchouli floated back to her desk.

A few minutes later, I was lying in one of the beds in the attached maids' quarters. Now that I finally had time to relax, fatigue from the day began to set in. I shut my eyes, hoping to get some rest before the inevitable work that I'd have to do and whatever a "magical analysis" is. It's not all bad though, a change of pace is good every now and then.


	2. Doctrina Magica

**Chapter 2: Doctrina Magica**

"I heard she came from the other side of the mansion, I wonder what it's like there."

"Hey, her dress is black instead of purple. No fair, why don't we get black dresses?"

"I overheard Koakuma telling Miss Patchouli that her magic's at N2, what does that even mean?"

"Look at her hair, isn't it pretty? Maybe I should grow out my hair like that."

"I wonder what her three sizes are."

I didn't have to even open my eyes to know that the other fairies were gathered around my bed. I groaned in annoyance at how noisy they were being.

"Wait, be quiet! I think she's waking up."

I slowly opened my eyes and sat up in bed. As I looked over the troupe of fairies gathered around they all stared back curiously.

"Can I help you?" I stretched my still-sleeping muscles out.

A fairy with her red hair styled into twin drills spoke up first. "Oh, um, we saw that you're new and just came to say hi."

"Thanks?"

A fairy with short blue hair started talking next. "So what's your name? Which part of the mansion did you come from?"

"My name's Carol, I came from Group 2B. That's the second floor hallways on the other side of the mansion. Um, what are all of your names?"

They went around in a circle introducing themselves, all cheerfully and proudly. I guess the name thing really did make some of us happy.

"Ahem." From the doorway, Koakuma cleared her throat. "Those books aren't going to clean themselves."

The fairies scattered and made their way out the door with joyful smiles on their faces. I don't understand how they can enjoy cleaning so much. Maybe there's something about cleaning books as opposed to windows, maybe I'll figure it out when I start cleaning books myself.

"Please excuse the girls, they're just excited that there's a new face around here." Koakuma took a minute to examine me. "They didn't give you a hard time, did they?"

"Oh no, I'm just not one for mornings." I brought myself out of bed and to my feet, which I could now balance properly on.

"I know that feeling. Anyway, shall we go? Miss Patchouli's waiting for us."

* * *

The walk to the center of the library felt completely different than yesterday, maybe it was because I could actually walk on my own this time. All around us, the fairies dusted the shelves and individual books with feather dusters all while singing some happy song.

When we came to the central area, we found that Patchouli was in the exact same place, sitting in her oversized chair at her cluttered desk. It appeared that she had fallen asleep in the middle of reading a book and was now using the pages as a pillow.

"My, you've fallen asleep at your desk again? Sometimes I wonder why we even built you a bedroom." Koakuma delicately gave Patchouli a peck on the cheek, which roused the sleeping librarian.

Upon seeing her assistant's face so close, she began to panic, flailing about and trying to get away. She did get away, but unfortunately fell out of her chair and landed on her rear. She straightened herself up and lightly coughed as she composed herself. When she turned to face me, she had the same emotionless look when I first saw her, except this this time, her face was lightly flushed. Koakuma stood to the side giggling to herself.

"Good morning, Carol. I see you're well enough to stand on your own." She attempted to sway my mind from the subject by making small talk.

"Yes, I am." I was still at a loss of words when I spoke.

"Perfect. I will now perform a magical analysis on your body. Stand straight with your feet together and your arms spread out. Koakuma, bring me a pencil and paper." She attempted to avoid looking behind her as she said the last part.

The ground below me began to form a blue hexagram inside a circle that began to spin on the floor. As Koakuma playfully blew into Patchouli's defenseless ear, the hexagram faltered, losing some of its glow and distorting slightly before quickly returning to its original state. Patchouli took another few seconds to compose herself yet again.

Readying the pencil and paper, she declared, "I will begin now."

The hexagram at my feet began rising up around my body, leaving a warm tingling feeling as it passed. I dropped my arms when the circle moved above my head.

Patchouli finished scribbling on the paper when I approached. From over her shoulder, I saw that the scribbles listed my height, weight, eye color, hair color, and everything else about me. It also noted that I was-

"A greater fairy, just as Sakuya told me. It seems that she's even above average in her arcane potential."

"Wait, what does that even mean? And who's Sakuya?"

"That doesn't matter right now. Currently, we need to teach you to maintain the seals and wards around the library. Shall we begin?"

* * *

"Why did I have to be blindfolded again?"

"Well, you would first need to recognize magic before you can manipulate it." Called a voice from somewhere in front of me, I identified it as Koakuma.

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts, point to exactly where we are." Patchouli, directly in front.

"You're both in front of me."

"Are we?" Both of them spoke at the same time and were somehow already behind me.

"You're just relying on your hearing, you have to sense our magic." Koakuma this time and she was moving around above me.

"But I can't-" I spun around, frantically trying to find the source of the voices.

"I thought I told you no buts. Concentrate." Patchouli's voice was distant, as if she were on the other end of the library.

"Concentrate..." I shut my eyes tight and focused. Focused on that invisible force that I felt the first time I entered the library. Focused on the very air until it started to take shape. A flowing, erratically moving liquid-like thing that filled the air. I concentrated harder and found two stronger, more stable clusters of magic. With a bit more urging, I could begin to see a more defined outline of both. "I see it! I see it! You're there and there!" I shouted excitedly while pointing at both fairy-shaped forms.

"Not bad, but how about this?" Both sources suddenly disappeared and reappeared in a different place in the library. There appeared to be more, but weaker and less controlled clusters near them, the other fairies.

I pointed again at the two strongest magic groups. They once again disappeared and reappeared again. This process continued for a few minutes until I could differentiate Patchouli and Koakuma by their body outlines. "Ha, this is too easy!"

"Oh, is that so?" Suddenly, both Patchouli and Koakuma reappeared, but this time they were joined by duplicates with the exact same strength and control as the originals.

"What? How?" I frantically searched each and every one for a difference, I found none. Except, it seemed that they were all arranged in a pattern... Patchouli, Koakuma, Patchouli, Koakuma, Patchouli, and another Patchouli? "Wait a second, you're both there!" I pointed at the space between the two suspicious Patchoulis as I took off my blindfold. Sure enough, both stood there with smiles on their faces. The clones all disappeared at once.

"Clever girl." Patchouli smiled at me as her magic began to become visible. "Not bad for your first time. Also, very good job recognizing that we hid our magic signatures."

Suddenly, someone simply appeared in the air next to Patchouli and bent down to whisper something in her ear. It took me a second to recognize her as the maid who led me through the halls to the library. Just as I opened my mouth to say something, she had already disappeared as silently and quickly as she arrived.

"It seems that there's an important meeting that I must attend now. I'll leave you two to the wards." Patchouli levitated the massive book to her and stuck it under her arm as she walked to the door to the rest of the mansion.

"So, who was the maid? Also, how does she even do that?" I directed my question at Koakuma, who was waving to Patchouli as she closed the door behind her.

"That's Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. As for her disappearing act, that's no magic trick, it's her unique ability to manipulate time. She also can manipulate space and create duplicate knives from nothing. Do not mess with her unless you want knives in uncomfortable places." I shuddered at the thought of the last part.

"So, she manages all the fairy maids in this mansion?"

"Correct, though it functions more like a hierarchy. Miss Sakuya would be at the top with the area managers - one for each area such as the library or the west wing- then would come the group leaders and finally our common fairies, who do most of the work around here."

"What about the dress colors? I couldn't help but notice that mine was a different color than the maids in the library."

"We use those to easily identify fairies from other areas in the mansion. Purple is under Patchouli's domain, Green is Meiling's, Blue is Sakuya's high ranking maids, White is the kitchen staff, and Black is for all the maids not specifically under any of our supervision."

"That makes sense."

"Anyway, let's begin with the wards, shall we?"

* * *

For the next hour, Koakuma drilled me on every aspect of a ward including the magical instructions, the internal power pool, and the relevance of the hexagram inside the circle - better magic flow and spell focus. When the lesson was through, she brought me to a nearby ward and instructed me to examine it for any old or damaged parts.

The ward itself was a panel of wood set into the floor, the circle was carved on the top and the other side was inscribed with the magic instructions. The panel was held in the ground by a complex seal that took a few minutes to undo.

I searched the box itself for any damage to the wood, none. That means the mana pool doesn't have any leaks, meaning that it could last a while on its own even if the library's main magic network went down for any reason. I looked over the inscriptions on the opposite side but instantly gave up due to it being written in another language.

I called Koakuma over as I began working on the circle. "I just run my own magic through it?"

"That's right, you should be able to feel the magic run through the channels evenly. We might need to replace the ward if it isn't."

As I began to slowly work my way through the circle, I asked the question that's been on my mind since the morning. "So, what's going on between you and Miss Patchouli?"

"I work as her assistant in the library."

"No. That's not it. I mean the kiss."

Koakuma laughed lightly. "Well, I am a succubus after all."

"A succubus?"

"It means… it's my job to tease." She whispered in my ear.

As she whispered, something ran itself up my spine. The sudden feeling caused me to accidentally surge too much magic into the circle. I turned around to see Koakuma's black leathery tail swaying in the air. As I was about to give her a few harsh words, the ward produced a large spinning circle in the air like the one Patchouli used to do her magical analysis.

"Oh, it looks like you activated it. I suggest you run." She spread her batlike wings and took off in the direction of the library door.

Following suit, I spread my own wings and flew after her just before the ward's bullet spray hit the ground where I was just standing. My fragile fairy wings couldn't fly as fast as Koakuma's and I quickly lost track of her.

A fireball exploded behind me, throwing me forward and causing books to fall from their shelves, I quickly got back up. My momentary delay allowed the bullet spray to get dangerously close, I winced in pain when I felt one pierce a wing. Biting my lip, I attempted to fly again, but my bad wing just sent me into a bookcase. I just barely made it out of the way of a fireball which again threw me farther forward and showered me with books. I turned a corner between bookshelves in an attempt to avoid its attacks, but was blocked by a wall of flames. The momentary delay barely allowed a fireball to hit too close to me, singing my dress and burning my right leg. I attempted to run again, but my leg hurt too much and I collapsed to the floor.

"I leave for only an hour and you girls do this to my library." I looked up to see Patchouli standing over me, blocking the ward's bullets with a large magic circle in front of her palm. With a tap of her foot, the floor glowed light blue for a second before fading. The ward suddenly stopped and began to return to its box.

"Sorry I left you, I had to get Patchouli quickly." Koakuma helped me to a seated position and held her hands over my leg, a feeling as if cold water flowed over it as she used her magic.

Patchouli sighed. "I suppose I should have been supervising it myself. Koakuma, get her washed up and changed quickly. We have guests." With a flick of her finger, the scattered books floated off the ground and reshelved themselves.

"Yes, Miss Patchouli." Koakuma scooped me up in her arms again in the same way she did when I first entered the library and carried me to the maids' quarters.


	3. Visitors

**Chapter 3: Visitors**

Koakuma set me down on my bed in the now empty maids' quarters. "Looks like we'll have to get you a new outfit, but first I need to treat your injuries. If you don't mind, remove your dress for me."

I sat quietly for a second, stunned at the sudden request. "W-what?"

"I said, I need you to remove your dress. If it makes you feel any better, I can remove mine too." She said while lifting her top.

"W-wait, no! That's not the problem here!" I quickly grabbed her hands to stop her before she revealed anything more than her midsection.

I relaxed slightly as she pulled her top back down. "Is that so? Then what is the problem?"

"It's just that you suddenly asked me to do something like that... and... I-"

She sighed. "Look, I need you to remove the dress so I can check for any injuries that you might have. We're both girls here, aren't we? There really is no need to be ashamed."

"I-um. Okay." I hesitantly began lifting my dress over my head. Koakuma calmly took my dress and examined it before shaking her head at the damage.

"You'll need a new dress. Would you like a set of my clothes or Patchouli's?" She tossed the ruined maid's outfit into the waste basket in the corner of the room.

"A maid's outfit." I replied quickly and bluntly, much to Koakuma's displeasure.

She took a moment to circle and examine my body. "Minor bruises on the back, a burn on the left leg and a punctured wing. I'll have to treat those burns now, this may hurt a bit." I flinched when she put her hands on my leg, but the pain quickly faded as a glow emitted from her palms. When she removed her hands, it appeared as if nothing had ever happened.

"You can fix my wing, right?" Before, I couldn't care less about a punctured wing. I'd die soon anyway and everything would be fine when I revived the next morning, but now…

Koakuma shook her head. "Unfortunately, fairy wings are extremely delicate and can't handle healing magic. I really wish I could do something to help."

"No, it's fine. It's just- I can't really imagine continuing to live here without being able to fly."

"Neither can I." Koakuma's gently flapped her own wings as she thought about it herself.

"Did Miss Patchouli want us to return as soon as possible?" I said, not wanting to stay on a depressing topic.

"Ah, that's right, I'll go first. Maid dresses are in the closet there." She began to fly herself to the door but suddenly stopped and walked the rest of the way.

I watched Koakuma leave through the door and noted that she continued walking even after passing through the door.

* * *

As I approached the center of the library with a clean face and a new purple maid's outfit, I couldn't help but notice the guests.

The one speaking to Patchouli wore white gloves and a flowing purple and pink dress. A white cap, much like Patchouli's, sat atop her perfectly long blonde hair. Red ribbons adjourned her outfit in various places, the most prominent being the large bow in the front of her hat. She had a pink lace umbrella hanging by its handle on her arm.

The woman next to her stood close behind, as if she were her bodyguard. Her arms were hidden in long sleeves that she kept folded together in front of her. Nine tails sprouted from the back of her dress, each the same color as her hair with white at the tips. The hat atop her short blonde hair twitched as I approached.

They stopped their conversation and turned to look at me when I appeared beside Koakuma, I couldn't help but stare at their deep golden eyes.

"And who might this child be?" The first woman questioned in a singsong fashion.

"This is Carol, I've been training her in magic." Patchouli said. "Her results are rather promising for a fairy."

"Is that so? How cute." She hid a giggle behind her butterfly print paper fan.

"Nice to meet you." I bowed my head slightly but didn't quite break eye contact.

"Oh but where are my manners, my name is Yukari Yakumo. This one with all the fluffy tails is Ran, my shikigami." Yukari curtsied and Ran simply nodded.

"Should I call Chen, Yukari-sama?" Ran began to look around the library.

"No, let her have her fun. I'm sure she's finding some interesting novels to read." Her warm smile suddenly turned to a frown when she noticed my wing. "Oh my, what happened to your wing?"

I turned my head to look at it. "It was just a training accident, I got careless and now I have this."

"How terrible. May I look at it? Maybe I can do something to help." I turned around and felt her gloved hands clasp my wing. Both Patchouli and Koakuma's eyes widened when she removed her hands. I again turned to check my wing and was surprised to find that it was as if nothing had ever happened to it.

"What? My wing's fixed! I thought fairy wings couldn't be healed. How did you?" I stuttered, overcome with both excitement and confusion. I tested the wings by flying a few feet up then back down, they worked just as well as before.

"That's. A. Secret." She placed her index finger over her smiling lips before quickly winking at me.

"I'll continue with Carol's training now, Miss Patchouli." Koakuma took me by the hand and began leading me away.

* * *

I found myself with Koakuma between a massive bookshelf filled with what appeared to be magic references and a bookshelf with fictional titles. Koakuma immediately began picking out various magic books and handing them to me.

"I don't even get how she did that, no amount of healing magic can heal fairy wings without shattering them, so how?" Koakuma mumbled to herself as she handed me a book with a drop of water sketched on the front cover.

"Maybe it wasn't magic?" I set the book down on the stack of books.

"It is possible, considering how strong her aura was, but what was it? I can't even begin to think about anything that can." This time, she gave me an aged book with a tree drawn on the cover.

"Her aura? You mean her magic signature?" I cocked my head to the side.

"They both mean the same thing, I still think about magic spiritually. Miss Patchouli prefers magic signature. Anyway, did you feel her aura?" A book with metal bindings and a chunk of metal etched into the cover.

"I couldn't even feel it." As I thought back, I remembered that I couldn't feel Ran's aura either.

"Oh, I forgot you can't see them. They're hiding their auras, the more energy you put into hiding it, the harder it is for others to feel your aura. I couldn't exactly get through all of it, but I can tell you that both of them had overwhelming auras." A tome with a tiny ember on the cover.

"If they're that much stronger, couldn't they hide more of their auras?" I flicked a speck of dust off the book.

"They could, but they don't want to. Their goal is to make their presence known to the mansion's stronger residents. They're something like the guardians of Gensokyo. Although, it seems they didn't come here to threaten us." A book with a string binding and a leather cover featuring a small rock.

"Then what are they after? Unless they're just here to welcome us to Gensokyo, but that can't be right, can it?" I glanced at the growing pile of books.

"Actually, that's right." A new voice rang from the top of the bookshelves. When I looked up, I saw a girl with a pair of cat ears protruding from the top of her brown hair in addition to her pair of fairy ears and two black furry tails protruding from her rear. She sat at the edge of the shelf dangling her feet off the edge with a book in her hand. "We have no ulterior motives for being here. At least, I don't think so."

"Oh, you must be Chen. I'm Koakuma, Miss Patchouli's assistant, and this is Carol, she's an apprentice." Koakuma curtsied.

"Hup." Chen jumped from the top of the towering bookshelf, spinning and flipping about in the air as she fell. When she landed, she landed perfectly on her feet without the slightest indication of imbalance. "Yep, that's me. Nice ta meetcha, Koakuma, Carol."

"I see you've found yourself a Chinese title, I didn't think anyone in Gensokyo besides Meiling would know Chinese." The book was in fact written in a language that resembled Japanese, except was entirely in kanji.

"Oh yeah, I was a stray in China for a while before Ran-sama found me. She taught me Japanese, but I still remember some stuff from China."

Upon seeing my puzzled face, Koakuma burst out laughing. "Sorry Carol, you wouldn't understand because you've never been to the outside world. Just read one of the books for now."

I flipped to a random page in the book with the rock on it and began reading as Koakuma began discussing some other bizarre outside world matters with Chen.

...an essential technique for an earth mage to incorporate into his repertoire, as it provides a way to not only defend oneself, but also a potential way to trap an enemy.

It sounded simple enough, but I highly doubted that I could perform it without any prior knowledge of how to manipulate the element at all. I flipped back to the first page of the book.

Before one can manipulate earth, one must feel the power of nature running through oneself. The power of earth is found deep in the body's core, it is the strong, unwavering strength that can destroy cities but also defend allies in need.

I stared at the page blankly, not understanding the philosophical explanation written on the page. I shifted my attention back to Koakuma and Chen, in hopes of finding at least something that I could understand.

"Y'know, I never really did like Tokyo Mew Mew, they're really pushing the stereotypical catgirl thing too far." Chen said with her arms crossed.

"Is that so? Then how about Sailor Moon? I liked that one, though I didn't get to see how it ends before we came to Gensokyo. What a shame, the next episode was the finale too. Oh well, nothing I can do about it." Koakuma shrugged and shook her head.

"Oh, I liked Sailor Moon, it was one of my favorites. I downloaded all the episodes on my laptop, so I can show ya if Yukari-sama lets me bring it here." Chen's tails started to swish back and forth more vigorously now.

"Cheeeeennn! We're leaving now!" Ran called from somewhere in the library.

"Yes, Ran-sama!" Chen shouted back. "You mind if I borrow this one for a bit?" She asked Koakuma, holding up the Chinese book.

"I don't mind, just remember to bring it back next time." Koakuma flashed a warm smile at her new friend.

"Thanks, see ya Koakuma. Oh, and you too Carol." Chen waved before leaping up to the top of a bookshelf and disappearing from sight.

I waited a few seconds before turning to Koakuma. "Tokyo Mew Mew? Sailor Moon?"

"Magical girl anime, I'll tell you about it later. Anyway, we should start actually learning magic, shall we?" Koakuma looked up at the fading lights in the windows before gathering a few books up in her arms. "Actually, I think we should start heading back to Miss Patchouli. Grab the rest of those books and we'll continue learning magic."

"But we haven't even started." I mumbled to myself as I picked up the books and began following her.


	4. Elements

**Chapter 4: Elements**

"You didn't teach her at all?" Patchouli glared at an embarrassed Koakuma over the top of her book.

"Well, I-" Koakuma avoided eye contact as she tried to search for some valid excuse but soon gave up and bowed to Patchouli. "I'm sorry, Miss Patchouli, I got distracted."

Patchouli slammed the book closed and sighed. "No matter, I can teach her myself. Go clean the library, Ran left tail hair everywhere."

"Yes, Miss Patchouli." Koakuma flew away with her head hung low.

Patchouli then turned to me. "What day is it?"

"What?" I blurted out, surprised at the sudden question.

"I asked you what day it is. If you want to be an elementalist, you always need to know what day of the week it is. Now answer my question, what day is it?"

I thought for a second before realizing that the last time I looked at a calendar was around the first week I was taken in as a maid. "I don't know."

"It's Wednesday. I'll find you a calendar later, but work on knowing exactly what day of the week it is in the future. In any case, do you know why I asked you the day of the week?"

"No."

"Each day tilts slightly more to one element than the others, resulting in an easier time manipulating that element. I prefer to use the Japanese days of the week since they clearly say which element is strengthened that day. Do you know the Japanese names?"

I thought back to when we fairies were taught to read and write. "I think… _Nichiyoobi, Getsuyoobi, Kayoobi, Suiyoobi, Mokuyoobi, Kinyoobi, Doyoobi_."

"Correct. And today is _suiyoobi_, _sui_ (水) being the element of water; _ka (__火__)_, the element of fire; _moku_ (木), wood; _kin_ (金), metal; and _do_ (土), earth," She drew each of the kanji in the air using their respective elements. "The other two are rather peculiar in that they strengthen multiple elements, though to a weaker extent than other days. _Nichi (_日) is the sun, which strengthens the elements of fire, due to the heat it brings; wood, due to the energy it gives to plants; and earth, since both are celestial bodies. _Getsu_ (月) is the moon, its elements include water, due to the moon's influence on tides; metal, due to the silver of the moon; and earth, once again since they are both celestial bodies. Are you following?"

I took a moment to digest all the information. "I think so."

Patchouli nodded. "Good. There's more about symbolism and the gods, but I'll save that for another time. Now, onto manipulating water."

* * *

A few hours later, I could finally levitate an orb of water around with relative ease. I was nowhere near performing the advanced magic that Patchouli could, but I could do at least some amount of magic.

Patchouli was explaining more advanced advanced spells that involved an orb with multiple layers of fast flowing water and another spell with high pressure water sprays when Sakuya appeared out of nowhere to inform Patchouli that dinner was ready. I waved to Patchouli before returning to the maids' quarters for my own dinner, prepared by the maids in the kitchen.

As soon as I arrived, I was once again swarmed by the other fairy maids because they found about my magic lessons. I entertained them by floating a ball of water until a fairy wearing a white, less flashy maid's outfit and a stained apron walked in pushing a cart loaded with plates of curry rice. The maids all seemed to forget about my magic as they all made their way to their seats around the long table situated in the middle of the room and waited for the maid from the kitchen to serve them.

When I returned to Patchouli's desk in the center of the library, I was surprised to find that Chen was there with some sort of shiny device of some kind with sounds of someone talking coming from it. Koakuma sat next to her, intently watching the inside of the device. Curious, I circled around them to look at it.

The bottom face had buttons with Japanese characters on it with numbers and some other strange symbols. The upper face displayed a moving picture of an elaborate sequence of a blond girl transforming into different clothes. Interesting.

"Oh hey, Carol, wanna watch Sailor Moon with us? I'm showing Koa the finale." Said Chen, using a nickname that she had already given Koakuma.

"Sure?" I took a seat on the floor next to Chen and watched the screen. I was confused for most of it, but I found that I actually liked it.

Right in the middle of the battle between the girl and the villain, Chen's ears suddenly started twitching and she closed the laptop.

"It was just getting good." Groaned Koakuma as her favorite show was suddenly cut off.

"Wait, I think I hear somethin' outside." Chen said, putting the laptop into her backpack and beginning to walk toward one of the doors.

As Koakuma and I followed, I began to hear sounds from outside too. The closer we got to the door, the more I noticed the bright flashes of light filtering in through the windows.

When we got outside, I couldn't do anything but stand with my mouth agape. The sky above the mansion was filled with hundreds of bullets, lasers, and knives. I spotted two figures in the sky firing at each other. One looked like Yukari and the other appeared to be a small girl with bat wings.

"That's Yukari-sama." Chen said, eyes glittering from the light illuminating the sky.

"And that looks like the Mistress." Koakuma stood with the same awe-filled expression.

"So this is the true power of the greater beings in this world." I couldn't believe how much of a gap there was between me, a simple fairy, and other _youkai_.

"Nah, this isn't what Yukai-sama's really capable of. She's holding back for this casual match." Chen's eyes never left the sky, intently fixed on her master's master. Surely she has seen Yukari's strength hundreds of time before, yet she still watches as if it's the first time?

"Amazing." I let the word slip through my lips without much thought. It was true though, a fairy doesn't normally get to see battles like this from so close.

We three servants stood silent for the rest of the duel, intently watching as to not miss a single second of it.

* * *

The battle ended some time later and we all returned back to the library. We finished watching Sailor Moon, but it couldn't compare to what we had just witnessed.

We idly discussed the episode as we waited for Patchouli to return. Somehow, the conversation completely derailed and turned into 'what outfit Carol would look the best in'.

"I think she would look amazing in a sailor outfit." Koakuma stood deep in thought with a hand on her chin, most likely thinking up hundreds of embarrassing things to put me in. "Maybe some stockings for those long legs of hers too."

"Hmm, schoolgirl sounds pretty good, but I was thinkin' more of a long flowy dress." Chen's face displayed an equal amount of concentration.

"No, no, wait. I just thought of it. How about a _yukata_? Her frame looks perfect for one." Koakuma squinted her eyes to look at me with more detail.

"Actually, I think she'd look pretty good in a skirt and a hoodie. What do you think?" Chen's question was directed to Koakuma, but I decided that I should stop them before they go any farther.

"I think Carol would look best in a maid's outfit." A perfect answer because I normally wear a maid's outfit anyway.

"Wow, what a killjoy." Chen crossed her arms and pouted.

"I'll say." Koakuma looked down at me with her arms crossed in disappointment.

"Fine then, what would _you_ look cute in?" I pointed at Chen.

The catgirl tapped her chin with a clawed nail thoughtfully before snapping her fingers. "A hoodie an' a skirt! It's my favorite when we go to th' outside world. I'd probably wear it here but Yukari-sama says I shouldn't wear outside world clothes in Gensokyo."

I nodded even though I didn't even know what a 'hoodie' was. "Fair enough. Then how about you?" This time, the question was directed to Koakuma.

"Me? Well, no clothes at all." She paused and observed my surprised face with a twinkle in her eye. "In all seriousness, I like this." She motioned to the clothes she was wearing - a black dress over a white dress shirt with a red tie neatly tucked behind her dress.

"You always wear that though. Don't you have anything else?"

"Well, I still do have my clothes from the outside world, but I haven't even looked at them in a while. Come." Koakuma waved us to her as she began walking toward the other side of the library.

* * *

Koakuma led Chen and I to what appeared to be her bedroom at the other edge of the library. The room was rather simple, with a large bed in the center, a closet door, and a bookshelf lined with literature. It was not what I was expecting.

Chen ran past me and flopped onto the bed, kicking her legs in the air behind her. Koakuma giggled and moved toward her closet, flying up to search the top shelf. I took a seat at the edge of the bed and busied myself with reading the titles on the bookshelf, which I was surprised to find contained a mixture of magic books, fiction, and other random types.

"Here we are." Koakuma dropped large box onto the bed. The three anxiously waited to see the contents as Koakuma undid the string tied around it.

The box was packed to the top with all sorts of clothes from dresses to shorts to things that I didn't even recognize.

"So, what kinda things d' you have in here?" Chen asked as she dug through the box.

"Everything from sailor outfits to hoodies." Koakuma replied nonchalantly.

I didn't think much about what Koakuma had said at the time, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized it. I felt a chill go up my spine as I looked up to meet their devilish grins. I tried to run, but I felt a leathery tail curl around my ankle, causing me to trip and land on my face.

"Now, now, where do you think you're going, Carol?" To top it off, she started laughing like a maniac.

"Patchouli, Yukari, someone, anyone! Help me!" I pleaded as I was slowly dragged toward my impending doom.

The two demons simply laughed at my futile attempt to escape.

"I'm not getting out of this one, am I?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

"Nope!" Chen cheerfully said with an extra dose of insane giggling.

"Damnit." Was all I could say as I mentally prepared myself for what was to come.

* * *

"Koakuma?" Patchouli flatly asked after she spent a solid minute looking over my involuntary costume change.

I could only nod as I attempted to pull my skirt down to avoid exposing my legs. I spent the last few hours in that room, being dressed up like a doll. I was only released when they ran out of clothes to put on me. They sent me out in a black and white schoolgirl's sailor outfit and white stockings. The skirt was way too short for my comfort and would show my thighs if I moved too much.

"I see." After a brief pause and another look over my outfit, she spoke. "How about I begin teaching you about tomorrow's element: wood? We still have some time today before it gets too late."

The clock tolled eleven times, even so I wanted something to distract me from my shattered pride. "Yes please."

With a small smirk, she slammed the heavy tome she was reading shut. "Let's begin."


	5. The Scarlet Devil

**Chapter 5: The Scarlet Devil**

"Look at that, she's wearing a different outfit today."

"I hear that Koakuma forced her into it."

"How terrible!"

"I think it looks nice on her, personally."

"Hmm, I think you're right."

"I want one. Do you think Koakuma will let me have one?"

"I donno, maybe you should ask her."

I was extremely tired from learning magic the previous night and I didn't feel like getting up but the other fairies decided they needed to crowd around me and be as loud as possible. Again. I curled up tighter under the covers.

I heard the door open and the fairies shifting to look at who entered. "Time to begin your duties." Koakuma's voice came from the direction of the door.

I heard wings begin flapping and fade as the other maids left the room. After a pause, the sound of a single set of wings returned.

"Um, Miss Koakuma, would it be okay if I can have a set of what Carol's wearing?"

"What Carol's wear- oh." Koakuma cut herself short when she realized that I was still wearing the schoolgirl's outfit that I was forced into. She hid her laughter with a cough and managed to reply without laughing any harder. "Maybe later."

"Okay then." The fairy maid said with a slightly dejected tone as she flew herself out the door.

I pulled myself up to a sitting position, Koakuma's had a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling.

"You can stop laughing at me now." I deadpanned, my face showing the exact same lack of emotion.

"I'm sorry Carol, but this is just too priceless." As her laughter faded, she had to take a few deep breaths. "You could've changed out of that, you know."

"I'm aware. I was just so tired after Miss Patchouli's lesson last night that I could barely stand." I thought back, we started around an hour before midnight. What time did we end? Maybe somewhere around four? Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway.

"Right, about that. Miss Patchouli and I will be busy for today so you're free to do as you like, just don't wander too far from the library."

"I see. Then I'll just - uh…" Trailing off, I realized I really had nothing to do now that I had no magic lessons. I idly played with my hair, thinking of something to do.

Koakuma cocked her head to one side. "Can't think of anything?"

"I'll practice magic, I guess." That's the only thing I could really think of.

"I would not recommend it. Novices tend to strain themselves when using magic without knowing their limits." She scratched her head, thinking of something herself. "What I like to do is find an interesting book from the fiction section and read under the pavilion outside in the garden."

"That sounds nice. I think I'll do that. Thank you, Koakuma." I got out of bed and began walking to the door but stopped myself upon hearing Koakuma's giggling.

"Are you planning on going out in _that_?"

I turned on my heel and made my way to the closet as soon as I realized it. "Definitely not." I said as I passed her.

* * *

After changing and returning the outfit to Koakuma, I made my way to one of the large shelves labeled with a simple silver plaque with 'Fiction' carved into it.

Without a single glance at the various titles, I grabbed a random book and made my way towards the garden. As I passed through the thick wooden doors, I couldn't help but notice the immediate heat that I felt when passing through the boundary of the library. I hadn't noticed it before, but the inside of the mansion seems to be regulated so the air is always cool, if not cold. Must be yet another product of magic.

The instant the sunlight touched my skin, I felt a pleasant warmth spread through my body. That warmth, however, made me feel the slightest bit drowsy. Yawning, I took a seat under the pavilion and flipped the book's cover open to the first page. I immersed myself in the world of this book, absorbing every carefully chosen word.

* * *

At some point, I nodded off. The heat probably got to me and before I knew it, I was fast asleep on the table with the book spread open in front of me. I felt a slight disturbance in my hair, almost as if someone were playing with it. Groaning, I picked my head off the table and turned to look at whoever was sitting next to me, with little success due to my tired eyes still showing me blurs. The rapidly fading sunlight didn't help my vision either.

"Ah, pardon me. I came to join you but you were fast asleep and I got bored. Your hair is beautiful by the way. How do you get it be so soft?" Her voice was melodious, elegant, and slightly childlike.

In my still-drowsy stupor I managed to mumble something coherent. "Who?"

With an intimidating laugh that would've been way more menacing if not for her childlike voice, she got up on the table to stand over me. "Ufufufu. Who am I, you ask? Such a terrible maid. I am your mistress, the Lady of this mansion, I am Remilia Scarlet!"

My eyes widened as I realized that I was talking to the Scarlet Devil herself, albeit in a form that I was not exactly expecting. I immediately bowed my head and began rattling off apologies. "Lady Remilia, please forgive me! I didn't realize that it was you!"

Her overconfident smirk faded to a frown as she climbed off the table, waving her hand at me. "Don't do that. It's embarrassing if you grovel that much." She snapped her fingers in the air. "Sakuya, bring us both tea."

The maid simply materialized in the air in front of the table and began talking. "Both, Milady? For you and this fairy?" She almost sounded surprised that she had to make tea for a mere fairy.

"Yes for me and this fairy. Now go, hop to it." She waved her hand at Sakuya, who in response curtsied and vanished.

"Does she not like fairies?" I asked tentatively.

"Nothing like that. It's just very improper for a servant to be having tea with the Mistress. However, I did approach you."

"But why me? Of everyone you could choose from this mansion, why me? I'm just a normal, low-ranking fairy maid."

"Why you ask?" She rest her head in an open palm, propping it up. "You're a very interesting fairy. Your fate… it beckoned me to you."

As I took a moment to think about what she meant, Sakuya reappeared with a pair of saucers with steaming cups of tea. Looking into each of the cups, I noted that I got the cheap green tea while Remilia got a higher quality black tea. Sakuya reappeared with a small jar of honey and a tiny spoon. Remilia thanked the maid, getting the slightest of smiles from the stoic maid. When I thanked her, I wasn't even acknowledged.

"Black tea with a touch of honey." Remilia said, stirring her tea with the spoon. "It gives it the loveliest hint of sweetness."

I looked into my cup, it wasn't anything too special, unlike Remilia's. I took a sip of it. Bitter.

She sighed blissfully after taking a sip of hers. "Patchy tells me you're learning magic, yes? How's that going?"

I cradled my teacup in my hands, not wanting to drink it but not wanting to be any more rude than I already have been. "Well, I know basic water and wood magic."

"What? Is that all Patchy's taught you?" She frowned and set down her teacup. "I have an idea, come here."

I set my own cup down and skirted around the table to an arm's length from her.

"No, closer."

I moved closer, but still kept my distance.

"You know what-" She scooted so close that our shoulders touched. "Now look at me."

I turned my body so I faced her. She was pulling her hair back from her forehead.

"Stay still." She brushed my hair back and touched her forehead to mine.

In that instant, a million things entered my mind and, after a moment of concentration I found that I could finally understand all the elements, their involvement in nature, their reactions to other elements, and even some spells.

When I came to, I was staring at Remilia's grinning face. "You-"

"Indeed, I just gave you my knowledge of the elements. Let's go back to the library, I needed to talk to Patchy anyway." She walked off direction of the library doors.

I snuck a sip of her tea while she wasn't looking just because I was curious. Delicious. The honey really did make it taste better. I ran to catch up to her before I got left behind.

* * *

"You ruined my experiment." Patchouli deadpanned as she peered at Remilia over the top of tome.

"Your experiment can wait. My plan needs to happen now!" The charismatic mistress pouted like a little girl. It didn't help her image at all, but I wasn't about to tell her.

Patchouli slammed the book shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. Koakuma, make a contract with her. After that, test her power and scan her again." She stopped Remilia as she opened her mouth to protest. "You owe me this at least for what you did to my experiment."

"Yes, Miss Patchouli." She took her place in the middle of an open area a bit away from Patchouli's desk and waved me over to her. "We're standing on a hidden magic circle right now. Carol, would you do the honors?"

"Sure." As I pulsed my magic into the ground, the circle began glowing and the floor suddenly began moving downward to form a spiral staircase. "Wow."

Koakuma laughed lightly. "If you think that's amazing, you haven't seen anything yet. Come." She gestured for me to follow her down the stairs.

Once we got a little way down, the stairs above began to rise to flatten with the floor. Just before the stairs closed completely, I could hear Patchouli say something to Remilia, something about the previously mentioned plan. Tiny floating lights appeared in small ports in the wall as we passed, lighting our way. After a while, Koakuma started talking, possibly to fill the silence.

"So, Carol, how have you been recently? I know that you've recently had a lot happen to you." Her voice echoed throughout the stairwell, just how far down does it go?

"I've been fine, aside from a few incidents." I paused a moment to emphasize that most of them were caused by her, which caused her to chuckle lightly. "But I like all of it. Learning magic beats washing windows any day."

"You're a very lucky fairy maid, you know. Not everyone gets to work so closely with us, you even had tea with the mistress."

"I know and I'm thankful for it. But I feel like there's something going on, something bigger that I'm not seeing."

"There is but I'm not supposed to tell you. I'll just say that we're taking a huge risk in training a fairy. Not that there's anything wrong with fairies, they're just..."

"Weak?"

"Not necessarily. In any case, we're here." She led me through a doorway into a brightly lit room. Well, room would be an understatement. It appeared to be as big as the mansion itself. "Welcome to Voile, the magic library."

My jaw hung loosely as I took in the view. We appeared to be on a balcony high above one level of a multi-leveled circular library. The walls were bookshelves with hundreds of thousands of books. Lanterns hung from the ceiling and were mounted to walls, stairs went from one level to the next, and a single raised platform floated in the middle of the entire library with a table and a pair of chairs.

"Amazing, isn't it? It took Miss Patchouli a few decades to construct this."

"But how?" I couldn't even formulate complex sentences.

"She built it herself, of course with some help and she's been collecting books for centuries. If you're talking about the space, it's more or less magic that keeps it this big. Miss Sakuya also has some kind of space distortion ability, it's same reason the mansion is bigger on the inside than the outside." She leaned over the balcony and gestured to a fairy maid with an embellished purple maid's outfit.

"That's amazing." I said, still awestruck.

"Bring an ink quill and spell sheet to the ritual room." Koakuma told the fairy, who had flown up to the balcony.

"Yes, ma'am." The fairy said with a seriousness that I've never seen in any other fairy.

"She's not like the other maids." I said out loud, following Koakuma down the stairs.

"That's right. She would be a sprite based on our grouping of fairies."

"Speaking of that, where would that put me? I remember something about a greater fairy." As I followed her, I noticed the beautiful red carpet that lined the floors.

"Our grouping system, from the weakest to the strongest is as follows: Fairy, Greater Fairy, Sprite or Elemental, Spirit, and Nature Deity. As their power grows, so does their intelligence, which is also the reason why we need sprites in Voile."

"I see, so I'd be an average fairy then." I was almost disappointed that my week of training hasn't put me as high on the ranking as I thought.

"Possibly, but this will probably change that." She stopped in front of a large wooden door, much like the one I saw when I first arrived at the library.

"What is this?" I said as I followed her through the door. The room was mainly empty aside from a few bookshelves, cabinets, and tables. The otherwise plain room's main feature was the very large magic circle drawn on the floor.

"This," Koakuma said as she scribbled on a paper that was left on a table. "is our ritual room. What that means for you is that I'm about to make a contract with you. It's nothing too strong, it's just an apprentice contract." She handed me the freshly inked contract to look over, it was in some other language that I couldn't understand.

I just gave her a strange look. "And what does this mean?"

"It's in Makaian, what it actually says doesn't concern you other than the fact that you'll be temporarily contracted to me as an apprentice. It's like my contract to Miss Patchouli as her apprentice, I work for her and she lends me some of her power. Which also means that you'll gain some of mine and a portion of Miss Patchouli's as well."

"Like Chen is Ran's _shikigami_, who's Yukari's _shikigami_?" I remember hearing something about that.

"Well, yes and no. Yes in the fact that Chen also inherits some of her power from Ran and by extension, Yukari but also no because a _shikigami_ is much stronger than a contract. A _shikigami_ bond is literally a spiritual bond that can't be broken or reversed. Their lives are all connected. If one dies, the others will suffer dire consequences, if not die."

"I see, that's interesting." I grabbed the quill and dipped it into the ink. "I sign here?"

"Anywhere is fine. The paper will draw mana from you to seal the contract." Koakuma began setting up candles in a pattern around the magic circle as I began signing my name.

As soon as I finished my final loop, I could feel the flood of power enter me. The paper rolled itself up and neatly tied a red ribbon around itself before settling itself on the table.

One thing that I immediately noticed was that I could see magic more clearly and easily. I attempted to create a ball of water from the moisture, it was almost effortless. "This is incredible."

Koakuma smiled. "Wait until you try more complex spells. But that can wait." She lit all the candles in a snap of her fingers. "Right now, we need to get you augmentations. Basically, I can make you better by magically augmenting your abilities." She gestured for me to move toward the center of the circle.

"Oh? Then what about you? I'm sure Miss Patchouli gave you some good ones." I took care in not touching the candles where they sat.

Koakuma laughed. "Memory, speed, and most recently, accuracy. I am a librarian's assistant after all. There's no need to go all out on combat augmentations for me." She waved her hand, causing the lights to dim until they completely faded, leaving only the candles to illuminate the room. "Just lie down and relax. You'll enter a dream-like state and wake up when I'm done."

"Alright." My eyes immediately began to feel heavy the instant I found a comfortable resting position. I didn't fight it, I just let the drowsiness pass over me.


	6. Magnus

**Chapter 6: Magnus**

"I'm done, Carol. Wake up." Koakuma's voice called me back from my slumber. Her words were slightly slurred, however. A yawn confirmed my suspicions. "How do you feel?"

"I don't really _feel _anything, should I?" I took a look around the room, the candles appeared to have been burning for a significant amount of time, almost to the point of melting to the base. A few cups sat empty on the table next to the contract.

"I suppose not. I augmented you with magic force and accelerated cognition." She drank down another steaming cup of something.

"What's that?"

She held up the cup. "Hmm? This? Coffee. Want some?"

"That too, but no. I meant what is accelerated cognition?"

Another sip. "You basically have the ability think at a greatly increased speed when your adrenaline is high. This means that you can process thoughts and information extremely fast during fights. Which means you have an almost instantaneous reaction time. It also means you can break down and replicate spells and attacks.

"That sounds a little like cheating, doesn't it?"

"Well, yes. It is bad manners to steal techniques from others to the point where it's almost forbidden in the magician community, but you are a fairy so it shouldn't matter too much."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"As previously stated, fairies aren't as strong as most other beings. The fatal flaw is that you can only replicate things that your body and power allows, otherwise you could hurt yourself. Also, you most likely will not be able to copy the advanced spells with multiple elements and mechanics."

"Then what's the point in me, a fairy, having it?"

"You'll spar with the strongest fairy in each of the mansion's sections to learn. Later this afternoon, you'll fight Meiling's strongest." She frowned at her empty cup. "Ugh, out of coffee again. Let's just get the important things over with before I fall asleep. Analysis. You remember the drill."

I took my place in the middle of the circle and spread my arms out. The circle passed over me and Koakuma wrote out the results on a paper.

"Well, that's disappointing." She said looking over the notes. "You're still a greater fairy."

"I was that before, but you still haven't said anything about what that actually means for me."

"Nothing much more than a title. I was sure there'd be a change in that."

"A change in what?"

"Your classification. The experiment that we were using you for was to see if it was possible to get you from a greater fairy to at least a sprite, but it seems that we can't." Koakuma shrugged it off. "Anyway, we'll test your power now. Shoot directly at me." She held her hand out in front of her, palm facing me. A magic circle grew outwards from her palm, marking my target.

I concentrated, summoning all my strength into a single strike. When I felt that it was the strongest it could be, I fired a single bullet into the circle.

Koakuma simply absorbed the shot into the circle and wrote something down on the paper. "Good work Carol, H1."

"Wait, what is H1?"

"Our power ranking system. There's five tiers, each ten times as powerful as the last, with a sixth for anything stronger than that. Each tier has a number from one to six with one being the weakest. The tiers are E, N, H, L, X, and P, the story about how we got those letters is pretty long so I'll tell you later. Anyway, E1 would be the weakest and X6 is the strongest."

"Makes sense, but what does it exactly mean?"

"To put it into perspective, E would be your common variety of fairy, N would be stronger fairies and lesser youkai, spirits and stronger youkai are in H, I would be a low L, Miss Patchouli hovers around the high L, and the Mistress would be a low X. As for P, we're estimating that Yukari would be around there."

"Wow. That actually makes it sound like there's a way bigger difference." Since I'm in N, that would make me about a hundred times weaker than Patchouli and a thousand times comparing to the Mistress. Just the thought of that was depressing.

"It is, but remember that you started off at N2. For you to be in H now is an amazing improvement."

"But wait, that means I've gotten almost ten times stronger! Why am I not a sprite then?"

Koakuma sighed. "That's where the unfortunate problem is. While it is true that higher classified fairies are smarter and stronger, the true definition is the density of magic in your body. Fairies are made up of nature elements, which also happens to be magic. And considering the results of the last two experiments, I'd say that it's impossible to change that."

I thought about it for a second before realizing that there was a gap in what she said. "Two experiments? Does that mean there was one before me?"

"Correct. We tried to forcefully change a fairy's magic density by directly injecting her with magic, but that was a bust. It ended up giving her something like a flu."

I remembered the reason why I was in the library in the first place. "Then she's the one that I'm replacing? Why couldn't you just take the magic out?"

"We would, but as I previously stated, fairies are literally made up of magic. Taking magic away is like draining my blood. It's too risky to attempt so we just left her so the magic could naturally restabilize." She yawned loudly. "I can barely stay up. I think I'll go to sleep now. Go talk to Miss Patchouli so she can brief you on the fight. Oh yeah, give her this too." She folded the paper that she wrote all the notes on and tucked it into my pocket. With another yawn, she excused herself from the room.

I sat silently in the room, thinking about everything she had just said. The inability to become anything more than just garden variety fairy, the massive difference in power between me and non-fairies, the fact that I was just being used as an experiment. I suppose that I could be thankful for being created at least a greater fairy and not a normal fairy. I suppose I could be thankful that I'm at least I improved from N2 to H1. I suppose I could be thankful that I had the chance to work with Patchouli and Koakuma and even meet the Mistress. With a sigh and a shake of my head I dismissed all those thoughts and began making my way back up to the mansion.

* * *

Patchouli sat silently, looking over the notes and occasionally scribbling something on her own sheet of paper. Once she finished, she turned to me. "Koakuma has told you about the duel you'll having today, correct?"

"Yes. If I remember correctly, I'm against Meiling's best."

"Indeed. Meiling's specialty is in hand-to-hand combat, you can expect your opponent to be aggressive and powerful at close range. Use your augmentations to your advantage and attack from afar while using your reaction time to dodge her strikes."

"Long range and dodge, got it."

Patchouli gave me a mysterious smirk. "Maybe you'll be able to learn her moves and turn them against her."

Right, the accelerated cognition. I might as well use this opportunity to learn things out of magic too.

"The battle begins in twelve minutes, head to the courtyard in front of the mansion. We'll be watching the fight." She stuffed her book under arm and floated her way to the mansion door.

I took a second to check the calendar on her desk before I left. Saturday. Looks like I'll be using earth today. I went over the spells that I knew in my head as I walked.

* * *

When I arrived at the courtyard, all the green-dressed fairies turned to look. A tall fairy with her arms crossed stood from the her seat on the edge of a fountain. She took her place facing me and cracked her knuckles.

"I have to fight you? Heh. This'll be easy." She said with a cocky grin. The fairies behind her began cheering her and telling her to kick my butt.

"Getting a little excited I see, do you really want to be beaten that badly?" I responded with my own banter. The fairies behind me started cheering, they all wore purple dresses. The ones in the back were less rowdy, probably the maids from Voile.

My opponent was clearly ticked. "Enough talk, this fight begins now." She rushed towards me at an astounding speed.

I raised a wall between us to buy me time to prepare my next spell. It didn't do much, she ran right through it as if it were nothing and was in front of me before I knew it. Suddenly, everything slowed down right as she pulled her fist back. This must be the accelerated cognition taking effect. I formed a glove of stone around my hand and punched her across her face before she could hit me.

She flew a short distance to the side before catching herself and standing up. She cackled loudly. "Not bad! I think I'll use this now." Her hands began burning with a blue fire. "Twin Dragons. Now you'll regret hitting me!"

I watched her every movement as she got herself into a fighting stance. I replicated it and drew up my own fire.

"You know the Twin Dragons too? Ha. No matter, it's a shame that I'm better." Her fighting style had changed completely, her movements had become more smooth and controlled. Her muscles tensed up right before she came at me.

The miniscule warning gave me a chance to prepare myself for her strike. I shifted my body slightly to dodge and countered with a flaming punch to her back. I jumped back to put more space between us while I began my next attack. Right as she stood, I dropped a large boulder on her.

The boulder exploded outward in a blue fireball, revealing a very pissed fairy. "Alright. Playtime's over." She again came at me except this time, she was throwing blue fireballs at me.

She got to me way quicker than before and began a blindingly fast barrage of attacks. A series of swift punches followed by a leg sweep to a shoulder slam. After barely avoiding all of them, I swung my leg around to kick her in the side but she grabbed my leg and tossed me to the ground.

I called a barrier of stone to protect my back mere moments before I heard it shatter. I used my wings to propel me away from her while leaving a cloud of dust to distract her. I brought myself back to my feet and retaliated with the exact same attacks that she did, sending her flying.

She stomped the ground, sending a shockwave that brought me to my knees. In that time that I couldn't move, she rushed in and punched me squarely in my stomach with all her force.

I could feel bones breaking as I was sent into the air. The pain was enough to make me black out momentarily. I soon realized that I was high in the sky, falling like a ragdoll. I looked over my shoulder at the ground and calculated the time I had. 2.79 seconds. And she's gathering her power to hit me when I get back down. Perfect.

With a quick observation of the surroundings, I identified all the tools that I needed: water from the fountain, earth and metal from the ground, wood from the hedges, and heat from the air. A quick glance showed me that she was concentrating so hard that she didn't even notice me start to manipulate the elements. Off to the side, I used the wood to create a flame and a ball of metal to absorb the heat. I brought water into the air above her and froze them into sharp spikes. I brought the stone around my body to protect myself.

When she opened her eyes, I was right in front of her. Before she could strike, however, I called the vines to hold her wrists and ankles and reinforced it with metal anchored to the ground. I positioned the ice spikes around her and sent them at her at different angles. She saw what I was doing and released all her stored energy in an burst, shattering the spikes, destroying her bindings, and breaking my stone armor. All a part of my plan.

She was panting from using up all her energy but I wasn't about to give her a break. I gathered all the stored heat in the metal chunks and created fireballs with them while shaping the metal into spikes. I rebuilt my armor and rushed her, landing a palm strike and staggering her backward, right into my trap.

I used the spikes to cage her in and launched the fireballs at her, which she managed to absorb into her twin dragons. I dumped water on her to extinguish her newly acquired flames then created electricity by combining elements and ran it through the metal.

She slumped over, completely defeated. As I dispelled all the magic that I was controlling, all the fairies watching started cheering and chanting my name. I blacked out mere moments later with barely any chance to enjoy my victory.


	7. Scarlet Weather

**Chapter 7: Scarlet Weather**

A brisk breeze woke me up with a chill. I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a bed in a darkened room and a painful headache. Clutching my head in an attempt to dull the pain, I heard a voice from the direction of the cold wind.

"You're pretty good, you know that? I never expected that a shrimp like you could beat me." It was the fairy that I fought earlier. She sat on the window sill with one leg lazily hanging outside, gazing out the window into the night sky. She sighed and smiled to herself. "Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. The name's Emily." She held a hand out to me.

"Carol." I said as I shook her hand.

"I know. The other fairies just won't shut up about you." She stood and stretched herself out. "Well, now that you're up, I guess I'll go tell them. See you around, kid." She waved over her shoulder.

"Bye." I said, watching her leave with her overconfident attitude.

Suddenly, she poked her head back around the corner. "I'm gonna want a rematch later, got it?" She didn't even wait for my answer before leaving again.

"Geez." After a moment, I pulled myself out of the bed and made my way to the window.

It was a nice night, with the clear sky and stars shining brightly. Looking down, I saw the courtyard, which had already been cleaned up after the battle. Outside of the gate, small lights danced around. _The guard fairies are unusually active tonight_.

"Ah, so you're up. How are you feeling? Headache?" Koakuma's voice came from the door behind me.

I turned to face her, surprised. "Yes, I do have a headache, how did you know?"

She nodded. "I thought so. The reason why you fainted was that you used too much magic at once. You exceeded your limits so to speak."

"Then what do I do?"

"Magic is all about preparation. You prepare most things before to save your mana when you need it. Take spellbooks for example, those are filled with quick spells that you can use just by putting a little bit of mana into them." I thought back to the huge book that Patchouli always carries around. _That must be her spellbook_.

"Then can I get a spellbook?"

"Unfortunately, no. Those take a very long time to make. We will, however, give you crystalline runes. They're basically rocks imbued with the elements, and crystals are the most pure and efficient form." She pulled a red crystal from her pocket, it seemed to contain a small pulsating ember.

I took it and cradled it in my hands. _It's warm and moving, almost as if it's alive_. "So, what do I do with this?"

"Naturally, you can reabsorb it to get small amount of its respective element for you to control or you can throw it and it'll explode on contact, again with a small amount of the element. To be honest though, I think throwing them is a much better use."

"I will get more, right?"

"Of course, Miss Patchouli can easily make them. Anyway, we need your help setting up a spell. The Mistress wants the plan to begin tonight." She climbed out the window and glided down to the courtyard.

_This feels so improper…_ I thought to myself. Nevertheless, I followed suit and flew through the window.

* * *

At the gate, a small group awaited us. Remilia, Sakuya, Patchouli, a tall woman in a dress that showed off her powerful frame, and Chen all stood in a group, just chatting. Fairies patrolled in groups around the mansion, led by one carrying a lantern.

Remilia turned to me and pouted upon seeing us approach. "Took you long enough." _As if I could do anything about it._

Patchouli cleared her throat and stepped forward. "There are six nodes around the mansion, we need someone at each of them to feed them energy to create the magic circle for the spell, hence why we needed you and Chen here as well. Once you get to your node, wait for Remi to begin the ritual. Any questions?"

The tall woman sheepishly held her hand up. "How do I know when the Mistress starts?"

"Trust me, you'll know." Patchouli paused before smirking at her. "China."

The woman pouted and muttered under her breath. "My name's Meiling." _Judging from her reaction, I'm fairly certain Patchouli regularly calls her that just to spite her. It almost makes me feel pity for her._

"Any more questions?" After a moment of silence, Patchouli continued. "Good. Now take your positions. Carol, your node is to the right side of the gate."

We all split up from there, Remilia went back toward the mansion; Chen, Koakuma and I headed to the right side; Patchouli, Sakuya, and Meiling headed the other direction. Chen and Koakuma let me have the first node, which appeared to be a scarlet crystal buried halfway into the ground. It looked very similar to the rune that I got earlier except larger than a fairy.

Standing at the node and guarding it with a small squad of other fairies was Emily with her arms crossed. She looked over her shoulder and dismissed me with a _hmph_ as I approached. _Well excuse me for winning a match that you agreed to. _I didn't say anything in an attempt to not piss her off any more.

It seemed that the other fairies couldn't contain themselves. They all quivered with excitement that they were by the fairy who beat their squad captain. The fairy holding the lantern spoke up first. "Hey Carol, you were so coo-"

"Can it." Emily cut her short with a sharp command. The fairy immediately stopped talking and bit her lip, desperately trying not to talk. _She must be pissed because they keep talking about me._

The next few minutes were spent in tense silence. I busied myself with studying the node, Emily continued standing there with her arms crossed, and the other fairies somewhat kept watch. The node did seem to have a set of magic instructions inscribed lightly into it, much like the ward, but I still couldn't read it.

Suddenly, a bright swirling orb of what appeared to be scarlet chains launched into the air above the mansion. _Oh, so that's what Patchouli meant when we'll know._ I began pumping my magic into the crystal, causing it to illuminate itself and draw curved lines around the mansion and straight lines through it on the ground, I recognized it as a huge magic circle. The crystal then fired a scarlet chain toward the floating mass which entwined itself with the six new chains. The sky above began to fill with red clouds that rapidly spread, blocking out the stars and the moon from view. Once the sky became filled with the odd clouds, the chains disappeared and the orb began floating back down toward the mansion.

I waited for a moment, unsure if the ritual was complete. As soon as Koakuma and Chen came into view, I knew it was done. I met up with them as they walked around the outer wall to the gate.

"So, why did we need to fill the sky with clouds?" I asked when I got to a reasonable speaking distance.

"We didn't _need_ to do this. Lady Remilia is just bored from having to stay in the mansion all day. Blocking out the sun with clouds lets her go out during the day. I'm sure there's easier ways but we let her do whatever she wants to do. She is the Mistress of the mansion after all." Koakuma shrugged.

"I don't think she'll have too much time t' have her fun. Incidents as obvious as this tend t' get resolved quickly." Chen said as she looked up at the not-at-all suspicious spiral of scarlet clouds directly over the mansion. _Way to be discreet about it, Mistress. Then again, drawing attention to herself might be her goal._

As soon as we got back into the library, Patchouli immediately told me to drink a potion to restore my magic and to put on thigh holsters filled with more crystal runes. It seemed that I would be thrown into yet another battle today.

* * *

As we walked down a hallway to the foyer, I heard the fairies chanting my name and cheering. I used the time to again check my crystals. _Twenty, I have four for each element, will this be enough? Probably not, but I'll have to use them sparingly._

"Ah, I almost forgot to tell you. This time you will fight Sakuya's best fairy. Her specialty is knife throwing, but she might also have something else up her sleeve as well. It's still Saturday if you were wondering." Patchouli said as she floated down the hall next to me.

When we entered the foyer, Patchouli and Koakuma went to join the others on the second floor. The floor was lined with fairies with maid's dresses of all colors.

In the center of the floor stood a straight-faced fairy in a blue dress. Upon seeing me, she curtsied, revealing her own thigh holsters lined with knives. "Iris, beginning attack." She said before immediately throwing a handful of knives at me. A mostly transparent magic wall appeared around the open area, enclosing us in.

I easily sidestepped it and let it bounce off the wall behind me. _She's testing me out. Most likely, she'll save her trump card until the end. If that's the case, I'll return the favor._ I pulled out a yellow rune and absorbed it, creating a floating orb of metal, which I used to create my own knives.

Watching me carefully, she threw another set to which I easily dodged and returned with my own knives. She moved out of their way just as easily as I did. This continued until I saw her holsters empty with the last knives held in her hands. _She's out of ammunition, now she should start using her special ability_.

Suddenly, the air in front of me filled with knives that simply appeared out of thin air. _I just barely caught it but she's moving fast enough to be teleporting. _I checked the ground behind me quickly before rolling out of the way. _The knives are gone, which means she has to collect them when she runs out. That's when I'll have my chance, but how will I hit her if she's moving that fast?_

I threw a fire crystal into the cluster of newly planted blades and created a barrier of flames around them. _No matter how fast you move, you still can't pass through a wall! Your turn, Iris._ As if to respond to my challenge, she held her hand out in front of her in the same way she held her knives. The knives floated out of the fire back to her hands, she began cleaning under her nails with a knife with the slightest hint of a smile on her face.

"Well now that's just not fair." I said in the lull of battle.

"Consider this: Not only can you use magic and close combat, you've already stolen my technique. What more do I have on you other than speed?" She glared at me, her cold eyes really sent shivers down my spine.

"I'm sure you have something else up your sleeves, why not use it now?" _If I can draw out her strongest right now, this fight could at least get somewhere._

She shrugged. "I suppose. Throwing knives at each other, hoping to get a lucky hit isn't going to get us anywhere." She suddenly disappeared, leaving knives in her wake.

As they began to move, I realized that they were moving way faster than normal. _She can go even faster? _I caught brief flashes of her as she stopped to fill the air with more and more knives. Then I suddenly realized that the other fairies outside were moving faster as well. _No, she's not going faster. I'm slower!_

My clothes began to tear as knives began skimming the edges. In my desperation, I used the orb of metal to create a wall to block the knives. _How can I even beat her like this?_ I had to quickly shift the wall around to block more projectiles from opposing side. That's when I spotted the fire from the crystal I threw, it was on the side closest the door. I suddenly remembered something that I had gotten from Remilia. _The fire, it's south of me and today's Saturday, which means I can easily channel earth. If I can get the other three directions, I can call on the power of the gods to help me._

I threw out the respective crystals in the necessary directions: water toward the back of the mansion, metal toward the library, and wood to where group 2B is stationed. I checked back to the source of the flying blades. _She's too busy throwing and recollecting her knives to notice, that's perfect for me._

I began to form the magic circle discreetly as I continued blocking knives with my shield. As soon as I finished, I activated the spell with a powerful burst of energy. "Suzaku, God of Fire, please allow me to use your divine power!" I soon began to feel an outside power flowing through me, the holy flames of the God Suzaku.

I fired a stream of flames into the air, nearly catching Iris in it. That one shot left me exhausted with my vision slowly fading. I dropped to my knees, unable to keep myself standing. _Oh great, I'm going to black out again. But I couldn't have overexerted myself this time, then what?_

I couldn't see anything anymore, my vision had completely faded to black. I felt myself drop to the ground, I couldn't even move anymore. I heard heels click to the ground. _Iris is here, looks like she wins_.

"I forfeit."

I didn't have the chance to comprehend what she said before losing consciousness.


	8. Strength

**Chapter 8: Strength**

_I feel like this is turning into a bad joke._

I stared at the wooden ceiling from the bed that I was laying in. It might not be the same one, but I remember waking up in the exact same manner not even a day ago. Or perhaps it was more than a day ago. That didn't matter to me at the time, for I had a terrible headache and it was even worse than last time.

"That's what happens when you attempt to channel a god. Fairies simply don't have the strength to do so." It was Iris, she had more of a chatty tone, but it was definitely the girl I fought last night.

Clutching my aching head with one hand and propping myself with the other, I turned to look at her. She was busy polishing a knife, a few more were lined up neatly on the table next to her. "You… Why?"

"Oh, it's simple. Fairies are naturally weak nature spirits. That means that we have an easier time summoning a god but we don't have the strength to control it." She held a knife up to the light for a few moments to examine it. Satisfied, she set it down next to the other finished knives and got to work on a new one.

"No, not that. But useful information nonetheless." As I began to bring myself to a more comfortable sitting position, I noticed that my dress no longer had tears in them. When I gave her a questioning look, she just gave me a jerk of her knife in the direction of two hanging maid outfits. The blue one was lightly scorched on one side, the purple had short slashes dotting it.

"I take it that you mean why I surrendered?" I responded with a nod, though I immediately regretted moving my head in such a way. "Simply put, I don't care about winning or losing. It was an enjoyable battle and that's all I wanted."

"I don't understand. You could've taken a win as an added bonus if you just didn't say anything." _I barely even hit her with my last attack._

She sighed and put the knife and cloth down. "Not everything is about winning or losing. What did you think the point of all your fights was? So Miss Patchouli could prove to the rest of the mansion that she has the strongest fairies? Of course not. You were meant to learn new skills and develop your own. They're trying to make you strong so you can fight that shrine maiden who always comes to solve incidents."

"I knew that already." _It was all quite obvious from the beginning. After all, why else would anyone spend so much time training a fairy?_

"Good, then act like you do. We're all counting on you to show them what a simple fairy can do." She finished polishing her last knife and began slipping them into her thigh holsters. When she was done, she turned back to me and said. "If you're done napping, you might want to go back to the library. Your runes are on the nightstand."

I thanked her as she left with a curtsy. I put on my thigh straps and slotted the remaining crystals back in before making my way down the hallways.

* * *

When I entered the library, I made my way to the center as usual, but something seemed off. I noted that the door had an unactivated seal on it and that there were way more wards than usual. The air felt heavier than usual and the other fairies were nowhere to be seen.

When I got to the center, Patchouli and Koakuma were there reading through a small pamphlet labeled 'Spellcard Rules'. Patchouli stopped mid-sentence and closed the pamphlet once I came into view.

"Welcome back, Carol. I see that you can summon gods now. Did Remilia tell you about the four gods?" Patchouli eyed me cautiously, as if she suspected me of something.

"Yes, I believe so. There was a fifth at the center as well." _Or at least I thought there was supposed to be._

"I see. I never knew that Remilia was of that school." She studied my confused expression for a moment. "Sometimes there's four gods and sometimes there's five, it depends on which way you were taught."

"Ah." I hesitated a moment. "Should I not be summoning a god?"

Patchouli leaned back in her chair to think before quietly discussing something with Koakuma. When they were done, she looked back at me. "While you can and have an easier time doing so, being a representation of nature itself, I wouldn't recommend it. Gods demand a large amount of power to channel for even a short amount of time. You simply don't have enough capacity for such as thing."

"Is there anything that I can do to change that?"

Another pause and quiet discussion with Koakuma. "The thing is that we don't quite know quite yet. The best thing you can hope for is if you simply practice."

"I see." _This entire conversation seems way too awkward._ "So is there something I can do?"

They exchanged glances and had another discussion. Koakuma started talking this time. "Truth be told, we don't have anything else planned for you. You've already fought the three oth-"

Patchouli cut her off quickly. "Two. I should hope that my trusted assistant learn to count correctly."

Koakuma bowed in apology. "Ah yes, pardon me. As I was saying, you fought the other two head fairies and you learned all the basic elements so we really don't know what to do with you now. We're currently waiting for someone to show up to stop Lady Remilia's spell."

I thought back to new additions to the library. "So that's the reason for the seals and wards."

Patchouli nodded in response. "Indeed, we're stepping up defenses in preparation. I will activate everything once I sense a strong unknown magic signature."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Not the door that connects to the mansion, the door that leads outside to the garden.

We all turned to look toward the door. Patchouli relaxed after a few seconds. "She's weak and I don't sense any others. Carol, would you mind letting her in?"

I bowed and made my way toward the door, slightly nervous about who it might be. As I opened the door, I was surprised to find a short blonde girl in a black dress standing there.

"Yo. Mind if I come in? I don't like how bright it is out here." Her flat eyes matched the complete lack of emotion in her words.

I've never seen her before and I was sure that she wasn't anyone who has ever been in the mansion before. _More importantly, how did you get past the gate? _"Uh, sure. Come in." I held the door open for her as she strolled in with her hands in her pockets.

I followed her as she made her way around the library, I couldn't help but notice the odd hair ribbon. And when I mean odd, there was something that I felt from it, something that I couldn't place. Eventually, we came to the central area where Patchouli and Koakuma waited.

The girl held up a book and looked at Patchouli. "You mind? Just gonna read." With Patchouli's approval, she found herself a short shelf to lie down on. She held the book straight above her and began reading.

After that, we all went along doing our own thing. I found the book that I was reading earlier and continued on that. After some amount of time, the door burst open followed by some child shouting loudly.

Patchouli waved at us to pay no attention to it. _Must be another one weak enough for us to not care. Though this one was a lot more rude than the blonde girl._ The shouting wavered between loud and quiet as whoever was making it was moving all around the library until it got very, very loud.

A blue-haired fairy in a blue dress with crystalline ice wings flew into the middle area that we were all in. She was followed by a green-haired fairy in a blue dress with rather fancy wings. They both looked around the area at the four of us for a moment before the ice fairy pointed at Patchouli and began shouting. "You! You look strong! I, Cirno, challenge you to see who is the strongest!"

Patchouli made a frustrated sound and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Could you keep it down? I'm trying to read. Fight Carol instead."

I looked at Patchouli then the pair of fairies. The green-haired fairy behind her waved at me with an almost embarrassed smile on her face. With a sigh, I closed my book and handed it to Koakuma. "Fine."

"Hahaha! You're sending your minions to fight me? I see how it is! I will beat them and then I will prove that I am the strongest!" She put her hands on her hips and laughed loudly.

Patchouli made another frustrated sound and turned to me. "Please, just shut her up. By the way, today's Sunday." _It's only been a day? It feels like it's been a lot longer than that._

The ice fairy and I flew up so we would have space to maneuver. A barrier formed between us and the other four. I began by drawing out a fire crystal and creating a fireball with it. _If her element's ice, I'll just melt her._ But the air suddenly started getting cold, really cold, to the point that frost began forming on the walls. The fire in my hand began to get smaller as it lost heat.

When she began her attacks, I began to notice something really interesting. I moved out of the way of a very dense but small blast of icicles. She continued trying to hit me with just that and nothing else. She would've been better off trying to freeze me to death. _She's an idiot. She is most definitely an idiot._

I continued the easy dodging and drew a water rune and tossed it past her, where it erupted against the wall. She stopped her attack to laugh at me. "Ha! You missed! You will never win because I'm stronger than you! Now. Witness my powerful attack!" She scrunched up her face and held her hands out in front of her, charging power at her palms. Meanwhile, I was bringing the water closer behind her while attempting to keep it from freezing over.

"Take this!" Her eyes snapped open and she began to shoot wherever she was charging. At that moment, I moved the water so it trapped her in a bubble. The sphere of water instantly froze with her in it and it kept freezing as she continued to pump her ice into it. _Such an idiot._ With a sigh I brought the frozen fairy back down to everyone else.

Patchouli closed the pamphlet she was reading and turned to look at the other two. "Now that the idiot's out of the way, you." She pointed at the green-haired fairy. "You're a disguised nature deity, aren't you?"

A deep and mature voice came out of her mouth. It didn't match how she looked, but it definitely sounded right for a being of such a title. "Yes, I am. You have a good eye." She curtsied. "You may call me Daiyousei."

"_Greater Fairy_, is it? How interesting." Patchouli raised an eyebrow at the blonde girl, who had flipped over on her stomach and was waving her legs in the air as she continued reading. "And your name?"

Without looking up, she answered while she turned a page. "Rumia, Youkai of Darkness. It's a seal." _She must be talking about the hair ribbon._

"Ah, I see. Then I assume that you three got through the gates by means of Rumia's powers?" A nod confirmed her assumption. "What is the occasion for someone of your status to visit us?"

"Please, just call me Daiyousei. At the moment, I am a simple fairy travelling with a youkai following an ice fairy into her random adventures. The reason why we are here is the same."

"But why would you want to make yourself seem so weak?" I blurted out without thinking. "If you're that strong, why drop down to our level?"

She stopped for a moment to look me up and down. "You, what is your name?"

"Carol. But I want to know why-" She cut me off with a finger to my lips.

"Yes, I know. For someone like you, a fairy at the bottom of the food chain in Gensokyo, you want to become stronger, you want to become meaningful, yes? Then I'll give you a little lesson. Strength is not everything. Enjoying other things in your life is more important. Take a look back, you've learned magic, you're being housed in this wonderful mansion, you're being taken care of by these wonderful people, why would you need anything else? For me, I find entertainment in participating in the chaos this child stirs up. Do you understand?" She took a step back and moved my head so I was looking directly into her eyes.

"I think so." It was a lot to process, but I felt like I understood something now.

"Good." A warm smile spread across her lips as she released my head. "Rumia, I believe it's time to leave. We wouldn't want to interfere with their work now, would we?"

"Yea." Rumia stood and stretched, all while yawning and showing her sharp fangs. She placed the book back on the shelf in the exact spot that she got it from and walked over to Daiyousei's side with her hands in her pockets.

"Thank you for having us, it was nice to meet you all." Daiyousei bowed to us, Rumia said nothing and just flashed us a peace sign.

As soon as Daiyousei placed her hand on it, the ball of ice began melting at an amazingly fast rate. Soon, only Cirno was left sitting in a large puddle of water. She opened her eyes and began looking around drowsily. She took a moment before mumbling out. "What happened?"

Daiyousei jumped at her and wrapped her arms around the ice fairy, sobbing and shouting in a higher pitched and more childlike voice. "Oh, Cirno-chan! I was so worried about you!"

"Huh? Wait, I was- uh." Her eyes focused on me and she jumped up and pointed at me, knocking poor Daiyousei off. "You! Don't think you've won just yet! I'll be back!" And just like that, she ran off out the door with Daiyousei and Rumia in tow.

"Well, that was an interesting distraction, wasn't it?" Koakuma giggled to herself.

"It was indeed interesting. By the way, Carol." Patchouli picked up three necklaces from her table and held them out to me. All three had small crystals attached to the ends. "These are charms, barrier charms to be more specific. Two of them will protect you from magic, the last one is a physical barrier."

I took them and hung them all around my neck. "Thanks."

"We're expecting someone to come to the mansion with intention to stop Remilia's spell soon, you may want to-" Patchouli cut herself off when a far off explosion shook the library. "That would be the gate. The front door has a powerful seal on it so the only other way in is through the library. Carol, go round up the other fairies for an ambush. They should be waiting in the maids' quarters."

I hurried off as the library became dark and the floor pulsed as the wards and mansion door seals were activated. I knew that it was time to put everything I had to the test.


	9. QED

**Chapter 9: QED**

As I entered the maids' quarters, the hushed discussions quickly halted and soon every single fairy had their eyes on me. They knew that my arrival could only mean that it was time, some appeared to be nervous, some were almost brimming with excitement. I, however, knew that it was time for me to show what I've learned, to prove that all my time practicing magic was not for nothing. It was my one chance to show everyone that fairies aren't weak.

I silently gestured to them to follow me and began to search for the intruder by looking for their magic signature. With my target now in sight, I led the group around it and began laying out small squads of three, surrounding whoever it was. As we got closer, I began to hear hushed mumbling belonging to that of a girl with a very brash-sounding voice. Judging from the sound of pages turning, it sounded as if she was trying to take a few books.

"Ooh-hoo, lookit this one, 'sounds like a pretty good read. I'll jus' borrow this one for a bit."

I set more squads as we got closer to her until it was just me and two others. When we edged closer to her, close enough that I could just see the frilled edge of her dress peeking around the corner, she suddenly stopped digging through the books and stood up.

"Well, guess I had my fun for now." She sighed loudly. "Y'know, if y' wanted to sneak up on me, y' could've at least tried t' hide yer aura!"

_Our auras? Damnit, I completely forgot about that!_ Just as I turned to shout to the others, something tapped the tip of my shoe. Looking down, it was a metal canister of some kind and it was brimming with a lot of unstable magic. I wasted no time in jumping backward and putting a barrier between my group and it, just barely making it in time before the darkened library was filled with blinding flashes of light. The explosion shattered my barrier and one of the magic barrier charms. As I was thrown through the air and over the bookshelves, I could see that my group and few others had taken the hint to start attacking. I caught the tip of a pointed hat rising above the bookshelves from where the intruder was right before I slammed into a wall and knocked out.

* * *

I opened my eyes to the still dark but now completely silent library. It seemed that the physical barrier charm had protected me from the damage that I had taken from hitting the wall with such force, it had cracks covering the tiny crystal but was otherwise still intact, which came as at least a small relief to me. I still felt quite weak, however, so I pulled myself up to a sitting position with my back against a bookshelf. When I looked straight ahead, I found myself staring at the heavy wooden door that lead to the rest of the mansion. Six light blue circles hovered in front of the door, casting a faint glow as they gently pulsed.

Just as I was about to stand, the intruder flew past me and dismounted her broom in front of the door. While she was busy studying the seal on the door, I took a little time to actually get a closer look at her. She looked like a storybook witch with her black dress and pointed hat - the broom didn't help either - but more importantly, she had a few of those metal capsules that she exploded on me fastened to her hip and a octagonal box with very powerful magic coursing through it in her hand. The very fact that she was standing here, in front of the door, meant that she defeated not only the fairies, but also Koakuma and Patchouli. _If she decides to turn and attack me, I'm definitely dead._

"Hey, y' know anything about this door? They gave ya charms n' runes so I'm assumin' you know somethin'." She turned to me and put her hands on her hips, the shadows obscured her face but I could just imagine her with a cocky grin on her face.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I did my best to hide my fear with a sharp tongue and a glare.

"Aww, come on now. Don't be like that to lil' ol' me. I jus' wanna open a door." She shrugged then held the octagonal box at me, the trigrams on its face began to light up in a pale yellow as she charged it with her magic. "How's about this then? Ya tell me or I'll blow ya up. Sound fair?"

"Do it, I'm not telling you anything." I felt a knot forming in my throat, hopefully I still kept my glare.

She stayed silent, studying me for a moment before putting the box away and walking back over to the door. "Well, ya don't know, guess I'll do it myself. Puzzle locks are pretty fun, kinda." She held her hand out to the first light blue circle on the seal and became very still.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized that I was holding when she turned away. "You aren't going to kill me?"

Without breaking her statue-like stance, she continued talking to me. "D' ya want me to?"

"No, not particularly." _She's way too relaxed, it's actually unsettling._

"Then I won't. I can tell thatcha don't know anythin', it writtin' all over yer face. By tha way, drop th' tough act, yer hands are shaking." When the first circle turned green, she moved her hand to the next one without missing a beat.

_So it was obvious, that's a bit embarrassing. _I clenched my fists to stop my shaking. I didn't get up from my spot and instead simply watched her as she worked through the next three circles.

"I'm here, completely focus'd on th' seal an' ya don't at least try ta attack? What's it? Pride?" The fifth circle turned green.

_She has a point, why haven't I thought about it? Was it because I didn't think I could do anything? Was it because I felt that it would be unfair to attack while she was distracted? Or was it because I felt that I owed her for not killing me? I can't tell._

"Well, no matter." As the last circle turned green, all six met at the center and disappeared, releasing the seal. She opened the door, allowing the light from the hallway to stream in around her. "Marisa Kirisame, I'm jus' an ordinary witch. See ya around fairy-girl." With that, she rode her broom off into the rest of the mansion.

* * *

After Marisa left, I decided that I would look around the library since following her probably wouldn't have been a good idea. Books were scattered all over the ground, wards sparking and inactive, and injured fairies scattered everywhere. I gathered up the fairies that still could move and headed off to find Koakuma and Patchouli. As we continued, the damage to the bookshelves and floors became more frequent until we found Koakuma's unconscious body in the center of a large signed area of the ground. With Koakuma now with us, we continued toward the center of the library, where Patchouli would be. And she was there, sitting next to a bookshelf panting heavily.

I attempted to help her to her feet but she cut me short. "No, I'm fine. I'll just stay here for a while." Patchouli coughed into her sleeve. "I'm actually quite impressed, she's only a human yet she's that strong."

"You can put Koakuma over there. The rest of you should clean up the library." I ordered the small group of fairies to do something else, giving me time to talk to Patchouli. "I'm sorry, I got knocked out at the beginning. I could've done something." _I actually didn't get a chance to try doing something. I should've been more aware, I should've thought about hiding our signatures, if I did…_

"Carol. Don't worry about it. We were never meant to win anyway, that's just how this kind of spellcard dueling works." She had another coughing fit, this time with tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "Besides, all Remi wanted was someone to play with."

"I know, but I still want to be able to say that I did something." _If I want to stop her, I should head upstairs to where Remilia is. It's only been a few minutes since she left, I can make it._ I headed back toward the door as fast as my wings could take me.

* * *

The foyer definitely had seen a battle - the front doors had been blasted inward with the seal on it sizzling and the ground was covered in needles and amulets. _Someone else is here and from the looks of it, they're insanely strong. _Just before I could fly down the corridor, a voice called to me from outside the blasted door.

"Yo, idiot. Come on, we gotta go." It was Emily, she had a small ensemble of green dressed fairies along with a few other colors. They all had cuts and burns all over them, it seemed that everyone had taken their fair bit of damage. "The shrine maiden's almost beaten the head maid, we fairies gotta make a last stand before she makes it to the Mistress."

"Don't call me idiot." I followed her out the door and over to the top of the mansion, where a large amount of fairy maids waited. Two others came down to greet Emily and I, one was Iris, another one was a vaguely familiar one wearing a red dress.

"Took you long enough. We have to start forming up, Miss Sakuya's not going to last much longer." Iris left as quickly as she arrived, commanding small groups of fairies to take positions in the sky above the mansion.

I stared at the maid in the red dress, trying to place where I've seen her before. My staring eventually caused her to look in my direction. "Hey Carol, it's been a while. We fought before, but you wouldn't remember since you had your memory sealed after you met the younger sister. Don't think about it too hard, you don't want to remember the younger sister. Just trust me on this." _If my memory was sealed, that explains a lot of things. This is not the time to fill in those gaps though, I need to get up there and help them._

I flew up next to Iris and released my remaining earth runes, splitting them into smaller stones and orbited them around me, ready to fire at the shrine maiden once she arrives. I followed everyone's gaze to the large stained glass window on the second floor of the mansion, violent flickers of light shone through, with the occasional needle or knife lodging itself in the thick glass. We all were all aligned in front of it, curving up to the clouds. The green dressed fighters stayed at the front, ready to immediately jump in when the intruder smashed through the window, the purple, blue, and red dressed fairies hovered behind them, ready to provide ranged cover, and the black and white dressed maids were dotted around in small groups for extra firepower.

"Listen up, I know that we all know how strong she is, but our only job right now is to stall her long enough for the moon to come up, Lady Scarlet will be at her strongest then." Someone shouted now that the lights that had been streaming through the window had now ceased. The sun began dipping below the horizon of the lake on the side of the mansion.

We all waited in silence, focused on the window. My heart pounded loudly as I eagerly yet nervously waited for my chance. _Wait a second, something seems off. What's taking her so long?_ _She should have smashed her way straight through that window if she beat Sakuya and Sakuya should've have said something to us if she won. Unless…_ From the corner of my eye I caught a sudden glint of something reflecting the sunlight, a lot of somethings. "To the left!" I shouted as I realized that those were the same needles I saw littered around the foyer.

"On our right too!" Somebody shouted as a large beam ripped through the center of our formation.

I began firing my rocks in the direction of the needles and now large flying amulets as the fairies began scrambling to reposition to the new targets. _I get it, she knew that going through the window was a trap so she went back out and came around us. At some point, she also met up with the witch and got her to flank us too._ My mind sped up and allowed me to narrowly avoid the sweeping needles and magic blasts.

It was only after half of us got wiped out that I began to see the shooters, the red and white shrine maiden was expertly dodging the literal walls of bullets coming from us fairies and the occasional stray bullets from the other side. I focused my attacks to be precisely where she would be, but she dodged even those. I absorbed the rest of the water, wood, and metal runes and turned them into spikes. As I began to fire at her with my arsenal, she turned her piercing gaze to me and turned her attack focus from the other fairies to me. I continued firing while trying to get away, but she moved at an astonishing speed, all the while twisting and turning her way through my oncoming spears. Before she got too close, I used a fire rune to activate the twin dragons.

I had run out of spears to launch and began firing small fireballs at her using the other fire runes. Deftly dodging it all, she got even closer to me in an attempt to shoot me down. When she was extremely close, I suddenly switched directions and launched myself downwards at her, swinging a flaming palm at her. The action definitely surprised her, as she stopped her shooting, but she switched her direction as well, dodging the strike. Without giving me any time to react, she planted a hard kick on my back, breaking the physical barrier charm and sending me even faster downward.

The hit made my vision go black for a moment and when I came to, I found myself staring at a red and white blur coming straight for me. She wasn't shooting any needles or amulets at me, she was going to beat me down. I unloaded basic bullets at her but to no avail, she weaved her way until she was almost close enough to strike me with the ritual stick in her hands.

_Most of the other fairies are either dead or busy fighting the witch and I'm all out of runes. I only have one option left, I know I'm going to die, but I at least can take her with me! _I created a fireball from the flames on my hands and detonated it between us. I wore a crazed grin on my face, knowing that there would be no way for her to avoid such a point-blank explosion, but that soon turned into a look of absolute horror when I saw her draw up a barrier between herself and the flames. _That's not possible. _The searing heat began to wrap around me, obscuring my vision and sending my body into unbearable pain. _There was no way that she could even react that quickly. _My second magical barrier charm shattered. _I couldn't stop her, I couldn't prove my worth, I failed. _Red turned to black and pain turned to nothingness.

_I am just a fairy, after all. That's all there is to it. End of proof._


End file.
